


Nightmare World survival guide

by Child_of_the_Fae



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:45:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7798720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Child_of_the_Fae/pseuds/Child_of_the_Fae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You are a child who has been unfortunate to fall into the Nightmare World, a place where Nightmares are real and want to kill you. This guide will help you survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nightmare World survival guide

If you are reading this, then you are one of the unfortunate souls to stumble into the Nightmare World, surviving this place will be hard but this guide will help you prepare. This guide has been made by previous wanderers of the Nightmare World, who learned its ways and wrote it down for others so they can also survive.

 **What is the Nightmare World?**  
Much of what we do know of the Nightmare World cannot be for certain, what we do know is based off our own experiences and the conclusions we have come to. The following explanation is our best theory and what most of us have agreed on; this is a world of the fear and nightmares of children, the monsters that haunt children in their dreams or from the shadows are real in this place. The monsters of this place are fierce and seek to kill anyone who ends up in the Nightmare World, we believe they are made from the fears of children because of the many shapes they take, a child’s imagination taking a simple object or sound and transforming it into something terrifying. The Nightmare World itself makes little sense, it is completely dark yet we are able to see besides that, and we can see ourselves and other humans as if we were in the light. And the laws of physics and reality are not the same as in our world, one moment gravity is normal and the next you’re barely touching the ground or being forced to the ground, you can be walking on a wall the same time someone is walking on a ceiling, you can run in a straight line and yet end up in the same place, you can go through one door and end up coming out one a great distance away, etc.

 **How you ended up in the Nightmare World**  
You’re probably asking yourself, ‘how did I end up in this place’? You can only enter the Nightmare World for the first time under very specific circumstances, it has to be 3 AM (or the witching hour as some call it) on the dot, you have to be under your bed or in your wardrobe/closet, and you have to be unknowing of the Nightmare World and the way to get there. If these circumstances are in place, then you will end up in the Nightmare World, and you are only able to leave once the sun rises in the real world where you live.

 **Rules of the Nightmare World**  
As stated before, what we do know of the Nightmare World is from what we have discovered ourselves, the following is the ‘rules of this world’ that we have managed to work out.  
\-  There is no escape. Until you reach 16th birthday you will have to return to the Nightmare World almost every night, the way will open up at 3 AM and if you do not go through voluntary then you will black out and wake up there instead (and that is not recommended, as the time it takes for you to wake up could be all it takes for a monster to find you and attack).  
\- Dawn is when you can leave. You will end up back home when the sun rises in wherever you live, our best theory is that the light chases the darkness away. At certain times of the year this can be good as you only spend a few hours in the Nightmare World during the Summer months, but during the Winter months you will have to stay much longer as the sun doesn’t rise for quite a while.  
\- On Sundays you are free from the Nightmare World. We don’t know if it’s due to religious reasons or not, but on Sundays the way remains closed, meaning we can have a break from the Nightmare World once a week.  
\- Light burns the monsters of the Nightmare World. Light is the greatest weapon against the monsters as it burns them, so most monsters are afraid of light, light can also reveal things that you didn’t see before because of the trickery of the Nightmare World.  
\- You can’t tell anyone who doesn’t already know. All of us have tried, we’ve tried to tell our parents and friends, anyone, but the Nightmare World seems to still have some sort of hold on us that prevents us from even uttering a word about it to anyone who doesn’t already know about it, even after we turn 16 we still can’t tell anyone. And writing it down or recording yourself doesn’t work, video will just suddenly glitch out and you won’t be able to write straight. It’s a miracle we were even able to create this guide, and even then, you’ll subconsciously hide it away so no one can find it.  
\- Recording equipment won’t work. This is another thing that we have all tried, taking a video camera or your phone with you into the Nightmare World to record the place in hopes of gathering proof or documenting it, but all the recordings will ever show is complete blackness and silence; and that’s if you’re lucky, many electrical devices just cease to work the moment you step through the way.  
\- No one can enter for the first time on purpose. We don’t know why, but you can only the Nightmare World for the first time by complete accident and under your own power. You may not be able to tell anyone about the Nightmare World but you can still drag them with you under the bed or into your wardrobe for the witching hour, but since they are not there by accident and under their own power the way will not open for them.  
\- Sharing a room with someone will not stop you from going to the Nightmare World or reveal it. You may think that if you have someone with you in your room when the way opens then you can do something, like having someone watching over you will stop the Nightmare World from claiming you or that they will witness you going there and thus finding out about the Nightmare World, but this is not the case. Similar to you if you do not go through the way on your own, the person you share a room with will simply back out until morning before they get the chance to see anything. And setting up cameras in your room will have a similar result, as soon as the clocks strike 3 any recording equipment will shut off before they can capture anything.

 **How to defend yourself**  
Considering you’re stuck going to the Nightmare World almost every night until your 16th birthday, you’ll need to be able to protect yourself to survive the night, though the best option is to always run rather than fight. Since the first child crossed the way we have been discovering how to defend ourselves against the monsters of the Nightmare World, so the following are some of the ways to defend yourself that we have discovered.  
\-  A torch/lantern/other sources or light. As stated before, light burns monsters, sometimes even reducing them to nothing if they are in the light long enough, as such a torch is the most important thing to have with you to defend yourself with. Torches offer direct and stronger light against the monsters, but lanterns produce a more surrounding light to protect you. You should get the best quality torches or lanterns you can find as they will have stronger light, will last longer and are more durable, which is important if you accidently drop them.  
\- Fire. Since light burns monsters, it stands to reason that fire would work even better, which it does. Shoving a naked flame at a monster will cause them a lot of harm and get them to run away if they were strong enough to survive it, though the light coming off it is weaker than a torch the flame itself still causes damage like it would a human and drives off the monsters. The best way to utilise fire it to make an old fashioned fire torch by getting a stick, wrapping material around one end and covering the material in flammable liquid, and then light it on fire when need be. Flammable liquid is also useful, such as if your able to cover a monster in it and then set light to it, or for making flame circles to either protect you or make around a monster to keep them contained.  
\- Glow in the dark liquid. Much like light, any liquid that glows acts like acid to the monsters, and also like light the stronger the glow the more harm it does. The way you weaponize glowing liquid is up to you, some of us put it in spray bottles to be ready to spray it in a monster’s face, some put it in water pistols/super soakers for more long ranged attack, water balloons, etc. If you have access to a paint gun, then you can use glow in the dark paint pellets for an effective weapon. There are a few ways to obtain glow in the dark liquid, you can buy and cut open glow sticks but that can get expensive, you can try and make your own but most recipes you’ll find will require expensive ingredients to make, won’t last long or will require a black light to work; some of us have taken to using slightly watered down glow in the dark paint, enough water to make the paint last longer and give it a thinner consistency, but enough of the paint to still have an effective glow.  
\- Actual weapons. Using real weapons either works or it doesn’t, sometimes the weapon will harm the monster as it would a human, other times the weapon will just phase through the monster. In fact, it seems like the stronger the monster it the more effective a weapon will be against them, and weapons work even better if they are coated in glowing liquid.  
\- Childhood comfort. We have no idea why, but an object from your childhood, such as a toy, that you have attachment to affects the monsters. The monsters can’t stand to be touched or even be near them and will often try to avoid them, even though they don’t appear to do anything to them. So many of us take those objects with us as protection.  
\- A pet. Almost all monsters are, ironically, terrified of pets, be it a tough pet like a dog or a weak animal like a hamster they will run away. Having a pet with you will offer protection from almost every monster. However, it isn’t easy to bring your pet to the Nightmare World, like with other people, they have to enter unknowingly and under their own power, so you can’t drag your pet with you when the way opens (and this includes enticing your pet under your bed or into your wardrobe with food or other ways). Your best hope is to have a dog or cat that prefers to sleep under your bed.  
\- Religious items. This one is unreliable to use, using religious items will only work if you are a devout follower of that religion. So, if you are a devout Christian or Hindu, the religious symbol or other objects of that faith will work for you, but if you aren’t then they are useless to use. We think it might be the belief that’s behind them, not the actual religious aspect, so this isn’t the answer for if god exists or which god is true questions. If the religious items to work for you, then they will work like more effective versions of the childhood comfort.

 **Other equipment you may need**  
\-  Rope. If you meet others in the Nightmare World then it is important to say together, but this can be difficult as it’s easy to become separated and lost; so tying rope around yourselves will keep you together. In the Nightmare World, rope takes on new properties, it takes on a golden glow, phases through monsters, and can increase in length so you don’t have to worry about the rope limiting your mobility. Rope can also help when climbing up or down things.  
\- Batteries. With how long you’ll need to keep your torch or lamp on the batteries inside of them will quickly run out, so it’s important to carry extra batteries with you.  
\- Food. It’s important to keep your energy up, so pack some food like sandwiches or fruit to eat when you can, it’ll keep your energy up and help keep you more awake and alert.  
\- First Aid kit. With the monsters attacking you, it’s easy to get injured, so you should take a first aid kit with you in case you or someone you’re with gets hurt.  
\- Watch. It can help to know how much longer you have left in the Nightmare World until dawn, bringing along a watch will allow you to do so.  
\- Chalk. It seems that if you draw a door with chalk in the Nightmare World the door will become real, allowing from one place to another quickly. But you need to be careful as you can’t control where the door leads you, and it could lead you to more monsters.  
\- Reflective objects. This will only really work if you are in a group, but having reflective objects attached to you can offer more protection from monsters by reflecting the light from torches, etc.  
\- A whistle. A whistle will only work if other people are near, alerting them to where you are so they can find you. Thankfully, monsters aren’t attracted by sound so it won’t alert them of where you are.  
\- Protective clothing. When against or running away from monsters you’re likely going to end up hitting the floor or bashed about more than once, so wearing protective clothing can lessen the blows. You should at least try and get some skating gear for when you get knocked to the floor.  
\- A bag. This one is a given, you’ll need a bag to carry all of the things that you’ll need to bring with you. Your bag should be a side bag rather than a backpack as it’ll be easier to reach your things inside it.  
\- A backpack stuffed with material. This will protect your back from the monsters when they are behind you, so that if they take a swing at or slam into your back then they’ll be less of an impact.

 **Tips**  
\-  Don’t be afraid. It’s hard but it’s important to try and control your fear as best as you can, the monsters are attracted to fear so the more afraid you are the more likely you are to be attacked. As time goes on it should get easier to control your fear as you get used to the constant danger of the Nightmare World.  
\- Stay alert. You never know when you’ll run into danger, so it’s important to stay on your toes and keep look out for monsters. If you slack off too much it could be a fatal mistake.  
\- Play music. The monsters of the Nightmare World don’t seem to be attracted to sound, some of us wonder if they can even hear, so playing music won’t lead them to you. Playing music or even singing yourself is a good way to keep yourself calm and your moral up, and it can also distract from the negative feelings that will attract the monster. But don’t wear headphones, you still need your hearing, and if it’s blocked off a monster can easily take advantage.  
\- Stick together. Monsters will be less likely to attack if you are with other people, and the more people there are in the group the better, though monsters are still more likely to attack than not. There’s also the fact that there’s strength in numbers, you can protect each other and fend off monsters more easily. However, groups will be hard to pull off, as the Nightmare World is vast, people enter at different places and times since they’re from around the world, and since you’ll be from other parts of the world it’s not likely you’ll live near anyone in the real world.  
\- Keep moving forward. Monsters will always be on your tail, they will follow your feelings of fear no matter the distance, so you must always move forward so they don’t catch up with you. If there’s some sort of obstacle in your way, it is best to find some way over or around it rather than going back to find an alternate route.  
\- Pack extra everything. There’s a good chance that you’ll accidently lose your torch or drop your current weapon and are unable to reach it, so you should always bring extra things so that you don’t end up defenceless. This is also important in case you run into someone new to the Nightmare World, and as such not knowing how to defend themselves, so you can give them your extra torch or glowing liquid weapon for them to defend themselves.  
\- Be prepared. You don’t know what you may face in the Nightmare World, so always pack for every possibility. But you should also pack as lightly as you can, you don’t want to be weighed down when fighting or running away from monsters.  
\- Stay in contact with others from the Nightmare World in the real world. It helps to stay in contact with others, sharing your problems and trying to work out ways to best survive, it can really help since you won’t have anyone else to tell your problems about the Nightmare World to. And if you’re really lucky, you can live close enough to one of them that you can visit and enter the Nightmare World together.  
\- Dress suitably. When you go through the way, you better be wearing clothes that won’t hinder you in anyway and that your clothes can protect you as much as they can. And if you have long hair, tie it up to prevent it getting in your face.  
\- Keep extra copies of this guide with you. This is for the sake of those new to the Nightmare World rather than yourself. If you run into a newbie you’ll need to give them a guide to let them know what they’re in for and how to survive, so it’s just common curtesy to keep at least one extra with you. And this guide can be photo copied.

 **The monsters of the Nightmare World**  
In the Nightmare World the monsters have different levels of strength, some may be weak and easily be taken down with a torch, others are strong and it’s better to run away from. Over the years we have managed to recognise common themes and power levels of the monsters and break them down into four different categories. Hopefully, this can tell you if the monster you encounter can be defeated or if your best hope is to run away.  
\-  Shades. These are the weakest of the monsters, but also the most common, they can easily be taken down with light and are more annoying than threatening as long as you have something to defend yourself with. If shouldn’t take more than a few seconds in the light for them to dissipate. These monsters can be identified by their formless shapes, most will look like they are made of smoke with shapes that can be vaguely recognised and limbs coming out of them. Due to their formless bodies, normal weapons will just pass through them, and they never make a sound.  
\- Shadows. Stronger than Shades, and much more capable of being deadly, they are still fairly easy to deal with providing you have the right equipment. A single Shadow is easy to deal with, but these monsters prefer to stay in groups, and it’s these groups that make them deadly, and it is easy to become overwhelmed. It takes longer, around 20 seconds, for direct light to get rid of them completely but they will still be affected by it and try to get away as soon as the light hits them Shadows have more solid shapes but will still shift between different forms, that we guess are meant to represent the monsters a child imagined up, and have smoke-like darkness constantly coming off them. Shadows can make sounds, but they are hisses and growls. Normal weapons are more likely to hit them, but they can still pass through them when the monster turn to that smoke-like darkness when changing shapes.  
\- Boogey Men. This is the most diverse group in terms of strength, but they are grouped together due to their not really being any other way to separate them since they share too many similarities. Boogey Men are usually by themselves, though it isn’t unusual for there to be two or three of them at once. Light still affects them, but it can take a few minutes for it to do any crippling damage depending on the strength of the monster, normal weapons should work on them without passing through their bodies, and glowing liquid is good against them because it will stay on their bodies and burn through them. But you should always try and get away from a Boogey Man first, and only fight if you have to, since you have no way of judging how strong they are and they can end up too strong for you. A Boogey Man will be completely solid with a humanoid shape, some looking more human while others will look more bestial, and if they are strong enough they can even say what sounds like words in hissing and creepy voices, though we have yet to ever understand what they say.  
\- Terrors. If you find one of these monsters, then your only hope is to run away as fast as you can or hide and pray it won’t find you, unlike the other monsters none of the ways to defend yourself will work; light won’t, weapons won’t, and even pets which can scare off every other monster won’t work. No one has ever met came face to face with a Terror and lived, but unlike the other monsters that just aim to kill, a Terror will prolong your suffering, they take a sick and twisted pleasure from what they do if they manage to catch one of us. For the other monsters, there have been theories of what might have created them that we can’t decide on, but a Terror is a monster that we all agree on how it came to be, there is really no easy way to say this, they are the fears of abused children, the child’s tormenter given new form in the Nightmare World. We think that due to be based on real, and twisted, people, Terrors and smarter and much stronger than the other monsters of the Nightmare World. They are capable of speech, calling out the name of the child they tormented and saying sickening things about what they’re going to do to that child (and anyone who has the misfortune of coming across them), they are absolutely giant in size which can be good since it’ll be easier to spot them before they spot you, they will usually look like the person they are based off with some more monstrous and exaggerated features, and they usually carry around a weapon such as a belt. If a Terror spots you, it will give chase and won’t give up until you manage to get away with sunrise, until then it will look for you even if you escape. Fortunately, Terrors are rare monster, so you hopefully won’t run into one.

_We hope that is guide helps you with your survival and wish you good luck, because you’re going to need it._

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have anything other for this story other than the setting of the Nightmare World, which I presented as a guide to make it more interesting. So, if anyone wants to take this idea and add their own spin to it or mix it with one of their fandoms for a story, they can, just make sure to tell me so I can read it and credit me with the idea.


End file.
